Week 3 – January 20-26: Total Mileage: 50
Monday: BOMF 9.12 miles in 90 minutes/ Yoga/climbing
Tuesday: 4.13 in 33 minutes
Wednesday: Off/rest/ Yoga/Climbing
Thursday: SEAC Speed: 4 mile warmup, 2 X 12 min tempo with 4 mins rest, 6 X 20 seconds uphill, 4 mile cool down, 13.6 Total
Friday: Off/rest
Saturday: 4.22 in 35 minutes
Sunday: 19 miles in 2 hours 25 minutes
Running in sub 20 degree temps suuuucks. Monday morning at BOMF it was cold as shit. Even with two pairs of gloves on my hands were numb halfway through the 9 mile run, probably does not help that we stand around for a few minutes to huddle up before the BOMF run gets under way and again at the end. Though I was mostly covered, the parts of my face that were exposed hurt like hell but hey, gotta put yourself in tough situations in training to develop that toughness. Tuesday I decided to not do a workout and instead hit the Mass Ave Bridge loop. I did two yoga classes this week, Monday and Wednesday, which was very nice. The usual teacher was not there for either so got to experience a couple different styles of teaching and did a few things that I had not done before. I also got three rock climbing sessions in this week M/T/F, loving the challenge it gives me both mentally and physically. There is something about having to block out the fact that you are X amount of feet off the ground and simply focus on the next move to the next hold that really forces me to stay present. After Wednesday’s day off from running I got back to it with the SEAC Speed workout on Thursday. Including the 3 miles each way to Heartbreak South End I logged about 13.5 miles.. More than I had planned but it will do. The workout was 2 X 12 min tempo with 4 min break in between followed by 6 X 20 seconds strong uphill. For the tempo I really was planning to just stay controlled and find a middle pack as I really did not want to overdo it and try to hang on to some of the really fast runners that attend these workouts. But, I felt good and so decided to hang on to the leaders for as long as I could and try to keep it nice and steady which ended up being the entirety of both tempo sessions. Was very happy with how I felt on these. The 6 reps on the hill I focused on my form and didn’t try to keep up with the leaders. Inevitably in workouts like these a few people are better suited for the shorter reps and will save some gas for the end. I tried to just pick a spot on the hill to try and hit every time. I took Friday off for recovery and then got back to it with a light 4.2 on Saturday to shake things out before my long run Sunday. I ran with Chris Knighton on Sunday, he is also a member of the heartbreakers who happens to be a running coach and a vegan as well so we have a lot in common and we share thoughts/ideas fairly regularly. It was really nice out, very warm and sunny so I ran in shorts which felt unreal after some of the cold runs of late. We ended up doing 19 (I was planning for 16-18), was a good route that took us over to part of the Boston Marathon course in Newton, then over through Waltham/Watertown to the river trail and back to Cambridge. Pace started in the low 8:00s but we dropped into the mid 7:00s and finished with a few low 7:00s. This felt hard the entire way, I was hanging on to Chris for the majority of it and would definitely have gone slower if I was solo but the good conversation helped the miles fly by. Finished over 50 miles on the week for the first time since CIM in December.
